Driving at speeds significantly below posted speed limits can reduce the risk of inadvertently exceeding a speed limit. However, slow driving can also create hazards associated with blocking traffic. For example, slow driving may encourage people to pass the slow moving vehicle which can be a risky undertaking on narrow, winding and/or poorly light roads.
While driving a motor vehicle, generally law abiding citizens attempting to drive at or near the speed limit will sometimes inadvertently exceed the legal speed limit. This may happen, for example, because of a sudden and poorly marked change in speed limits, because of a steep decline in the road surface such as may be encountered when descending a hill, or for other reasons.
Constant monitoring of a speedometer by a driver can be districting and lead to accidents due to the driver focusing his attention on the speedometer as opposed to road conditions. In addition, due to poor marking of speed limits, it is often difficult to promptly determine the applicable speed limit on any given road. This is particularly the case when turning onto a road. Thus, it is often difficult to comply with a speed limit simply because it is unknown to the driver.
To complicate matters, law enforcement officials seeking to issue speeding tickets and thereby generate revenue in the form of fines for local municipalities, often take advantage of naturally occurring road conditions and changes in speed limits, to find a location from which they can issue large number of speeding tickets. These tickets are often issued to unsuspecting motorists attempting to comply with the law.
While radar detectors offer some protection against speeding tickets, in many cases they fail to encourage compliance with speed limits. For this reason among others, radar detectors are illegal in some states.
In an attempt to make people aware of speed traps, at least one Internet web site, SPEEDTRAP.COM, lists speed trap location information. Unfortunately, this information may be incomplete, out-of-date, and/or difficult to access.
While the knowledge of speed trap location information can encourage motorists to comply with speed limits, particularly in locations where speed traps are known to occur, it is currently difficult for a motorist to access such information when needed, e.g., while driving. In addition, it is often difficult for the motorist to accurately identify the speed trap location based on the available position information which may be somewhat inaccurate.
In view of the above, there is a need for new and improved methods and apparatus for encouraging compliance with speed limits. In particular there is a need for methods and apparatus for providing a driver with speed limit information while driving. In addition, there is a need to provide a method of notifying the driver when he/she approximates or exceeds a speed limit. There is also a need for methods and apparatus for notifying a driver of upcoming speed trap locations. There is also a need for methods and apparatus for collecting accurate speed trap information, e.g., location and time information, and disseminating such information in a timely fashion to motor vehicle operators.